Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.
7 o'clock found Sarah stood by the fake plant in the entrance at Sunny Hill, she had a carrier bag with her swimming things in one hand and was ready to go. Dave the carer who normally drove them to the baths had not arrived yet and neither had Craig. She heard the sound of laughter drifting up the corridor and Ben and Craig came running through the doors laughing like hyenas.
"Goes what we just did," Ben panted, he was bright red and not exactly fond of exercising, he only came swimming to mess around splashing people and to stare at the girls in their swimsuits.
"Um, robbed a bank," Sarah joked.
"Nah, we stuck a bucket of water over Mark's door, now he's soaked so he's not coming with us." Craig told her, he wasn't even out of breath but was still doubled over from laughing so hard.
"Good, he always dunks me too hard and I finish up whacking my backside on the bottom of the pool." Sarah grinned. "Not that I don't give as good as I get mind you." She told them.
"Yeah, we always had these huge splash fights at my last children's home, once we got kicked out for soaking a lifeguard." Craig told her.
"Sounds ace, looks like Dave's here with the bus though, so we'd better get off." Sarah said, walking towards the door.
They all clambered aboard the battered blue minibus for the 15-minute ride to the pool. Sarah and Craig ended up sitting next to each other on the back seat.
"So how did you finish up at Sunny Hill?" Sarah asked him.
"My mum had a heart attack and then my Dad took an overdose." Craig told her with a shrug "That was when I was 5, I lived in the same children's home since I was 8 but now I've been moved here." He grinned at her, "I liked the old place better but this isn't as bad as where I lived before I moved there. What about you?" He asked.
"My brother shot my Mum and Dad with my dads shotgun, he used to be a game keeper, then he tried to soot my, luckily the bullet only grazed my side, you can't really see the scar anymore, it happened when I was 7," She explained.
"What happened to your brother?" Craig asked her, he actually looked interested.
"The cops caught him, he's doing life without parole so I'll never see him again, good riddance if you ask me." She told him with a scowl.
"So you've got no family the, no uncles or Aunts or anything?" He asked curiously.
"No, what is this 20 questions or something, you don't say much about yourself." She quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Nah, I'm just curious is all, as for me there's not much to tell." He told her before staring out of the window effectively ending the conversation.
The rest of the journey was fairly quite, Ben and a 12 year old lad called Adrian where discussing the latest table football tournament and weather they could beat the girls this time given they had lost the last 5 matches. Two of the older girls, Gemma and Alex who where both 14 where discussing how to get Jordan a blonde year 11 to notice two year nine girls. Personally Sarah thought that if they shortened their school skirts anymore they would do better off wearing a belt.
The bus swung into the Car park and Dave dropped the group off with strict instructions to be back in the car park at 8.30pm prompt. This meant they had about 50 minutes in the pool and 10 minutes to get dressed on either side.
The group wandered into the pool showing their county leisure passes to the girl on the desk, Craig apparently had one from his last home, before drifting into their respective changing rooms to get dressed.
When Sarah arrived onto the poolside she saw Craig and Mark where hanging around by the diving board at the deep end of the rectangular pool. Slowly she walked over to them, dressed in her pink and blue swimsuit, it was designed more for sport than for fashion, unlike the bikini's Gemma and Alex where wearing. Mark was dressed in red swim shorts with his belly hanging out over the top as he dive bombed the pool, Craig's shorts where black and he dived with a decent level of skill.
Sarah knew she was a decent swimmer but you couldn't get her on the diving board, she had a chronic fear of heights and even though the board was less than 2 meters above the water it still made her fell nauseous to look down. The boys where both climbing out of the pool for another turn on the board. Mark climbed up the ladder and ran down the board before tucking into a ball and jumping off the end soaking Sarah and Craig with a gigantic splash. Craig gestured for Sarah to go next.
"No thanks, I'll just jump in here," She told him.
"Why are you scared of heights or something?" He asked her jokingly.
"Actually I am." She said, "And I'm not going off that board."
"For me?" he quirked his eyebrow again.
"Why? I don't see the point." Sarah was getting agitated at this point.
"Go on, just walk up and jump off the end, I dare you." He taunted.
"Only if I get to dare you next," She grinned at him but her face had gone pale.
"Yeah sure." He told her with a cheeky grin.
"Ok then" She set off towards the steps with a resolute frown on her face. Shakily she climbed up to the board itself before cautiously walking out along the board, by the time she got to the end her face had gone totally white. She paused for a moment before taking a deep breath and jumping into the pool.
Sarah hit the water with a bit of a splash before coming up spluttering but elated.
"Now I get to dare you" she told Craig.
"Yeah, I suppose you do." He said starting to look slightly pensive.
"I dare you to do a summersault into the pool." She told him a wicked grin on he face.
"What off the diving board?" he asked
"Well duh." Her grin now eclipsed her whole face.
"Alright then." He clambered swiftly up the steps to the board before running along and doing a crazy summersault off the end. He swam to the side underwater before popping up.
"so do I get to dare Mark now?" he asked.
They spent the rest of the time at the pool playing dares and having races, silly contests like who could hold their breath the longest or swim under the water the furthest. Craig won most of the challenges with Sarah not far behind although she beat him at the underwater swimming.
Before they new it time was up and so the clambered out to go and get changed ready to meet Dave and the minibus at half eight.